Well I have finally entered maintenance. With great fear and trembling I ate a piece of squirrely bread toast with my eggs, and reduced my bacon by half.
Today I had an apple with peanut butter for a snack. It is very scary!

The first day I had a big salad, then natchos! and a small amount of HaagenDaaz icecream - my first sugar in eons. I had a slight weight increase the next day, but 4 days in and I am back down to my lowest weight.

I am trying to decrease my fat intake a bit, and increase my later OWL rungs, like more veggies, some fruits, higher carb veggies and some whole grains like corn and oats. Trying to keep my calories in the ballpark of 2000-2500.

So far so good... I am enjoying the variety, and the novelty. Still trying to avoid as much as possible refined flour and sugar. I think sugar and bread are the things I most need to avoid. Also, if I have a "treat" food, I try to only have it once in a day, within an hour, and the later in the day the better (or I get tired).

It was hard grocery shopping... I felt a bit lost as to what to buy. And I am still pretty nervous. But I am starting to relax a bit after seeing that I haven't gained any weight. I'm planning to start an exercise program tomorrow as well.

Here's hoping for success! I'm so determined not to gain it back!!

Good luck! I can't even imagine being on the maintenance phase!

Hi PinguChick - I'm assuming from your post that you didn't go through all the OWL rungs to get to maintenance, otherwise you'd have a pretty good idea of what you could or could not eat now.

Try going through the rungs now, in order and find out what your CCLM is -- that's really key to knowing what you can safely add to your diet without having regain.

Good luck, and why don't you join us in the pre-maintenance/maintenance thread: http://forum.lowcarber.org/forumdisplay.php?f=91 I find that being accountable to a group really help keep me in line!

Edited to add - I should have called it the maintenance weekly weigh-in thread, which is why I find it helps keep me on the straight and narrow!

Thanks! I was down again today, at my lowest weight ever now. Seems like so far my body likes this change.
I *sort of* went through the OWL rungs, but I never added things like icecream - theres no rung for that LOL. But its part of my maintenance plan to eat "off plan" foods occasionally, and still keep a balance of carbs and calories. My plan is to keep to a certain weekly amount of calories and carbs, instead of daily. Its a bit of an experiment. We'll see how smart it is - or not. If we gain a certain amount of weight we will be going back. But so far we have both lost.
But the feelings of fear are still there, however they are getting better.

Best of luck with that! I wish I had the confidence to do things my own way before I do the written way, but I don't! I eventually tweak and adjust to fit my taste and life-style, but I start with everything "by the book!" (rather like a robot ). Oh well, that's the way I'm wired so I live with it, but I still envy you free-wheelers.

First off, congratulations on goal!

I'm kinda in the same camp as Glendarc. If I remember correctly (and let me know if I'm wrong) but you really never found your CCL and CCM. Is that right? Also, by really working the rungs, it takes the fear out of the equation.

That makes maintenance a bit hard because you really don't know what your threshold is nor do you really know what your triggers are. I think you and I talked about OWL, pre and maintenance in another thread.

Salad, nachos, and ice cream...doesn't sound like a good maintenance combo in my book.

You're right in that sugar should be eaten rarely if at all per Dr. Atkins.

I hope your whole grains and corn don't do you in. I'd be really careful with those types of foods.

Are you planning on having a treat food everyday? If so, you should be really careful regarding the slippery slope. To me a treat is rare, not daily.

I don't mean to come off harsh or be a Debbie-downer, but I've been around this block more than once and I'd hate for you to make the same mistakes.

Good luck on the plan you've mapped out for yourself. I'll be holding my breath for you

Progress not perfection.

Lisa

Lisa and Glenda, you are both absolutely right! I appreciate your advice, and I take your advice very seriously because you have been so successful.
I'm crazy right? I would absolutely say the same thing to myself in my situation. I know it’s a slippery slope for sure.

I lost weight so slowly that I had to stay at induction levels to lose anything. I lost at a rate of about ¼ of a pound per week at the end. I didn’t climb the OWL rungs properly because I thought if I added more carbs I would stop losing for sure. When I did try adding anything in I would go up a pound or two. So back to induction.

I thought my CCL must be around 20-25 carbs, because I was maintaining at that level. But, I also knew that I was at a weight that my body really likes to be at, and I was at my initial goal. So I thought maybe this is a good time to *try* to maintain my weight. But I did think I would go up 2-5 pounds from reintroducing more carbs.

The weird thing is:

The first day of maintenance we had a big salad, a small plate of natchos and about 1/4c. of hagendaaz icecream – first off plan foods I’ve had in like 4 months. The next day, I was up 1.5 pounds, which was better than I expected. I’ve been eating from all the OWL rungs, including whole grains for the past 6 days. And the strange thing is that after the initial 1.5 pound gain, I went slowly down, so now I am down 3.5 pounds, or 2 pounds lower than my lowest! In 6 days!

Yesterday, for example, I ate:

Br: 2 eggs, 1 bacon, 1 piece of squirrelly bread (12 net carbs) a little butter – 370 cals 14 carbs.

Lunch: Tiny steak 3oz 1 egg, ½ c greek yogurt, ¼ c. strawberries – 500 cals – 15 carbs or so

Dinner: 2 slices roast beef, 1.5 cups total of zucchini/peppers/bokchoy sautéed with a little parmesean sprinkle – not sure on the cals and carbs maybe 500-700 cals, 10-15 carbs?

¼ c. Strawberries, ¼ c. greek yogurt, ½ bag popcorn – 350 cals, 40 carbs

So somewhere around 1800-2000 cals, and 80 carbs?
(That’s probably typical roughly for what I’ve been eating this week.)

After eating that yesterday I dropped 1.5 pounds this morning from my lowest ever weight!

The only thing I can think is that my CCL must be way higher than I thought. I think I must have needed to stick it out on the OWL rungs, and go higher, but at the time it didn’t seem like I could do that and still lose weight, because it was coming off so slow. Maybe if I had done that, i wouldn't have the diet fatigue! It's all a bit confusing.

For now, I plan to keep doing what I am doing – keep to the OWL rungs in general, and also keep an eye on my calories, but I do plan to have “off plan” treats once in a while… maybe once or twice a week… like when invited out. So we’ll see how that goes.

Not confusing at all.

This is the entire point of OWL, maintenance and pre-maintenance.
Since moving into pre-/maintenance I have lost another 10 pounds over the last 4-5 months. That's about 1/4 pound (or less a week) and it didn't come off weekly. Weeks and weeks at the same weight, then a teeny-weeny drop. Rinse and repeat.

Keep us posted.

Progress not perfection.

Lisa

I will, thanks!

Congratulations! If you are one of those very few (I believe) that can get away with 80 carbs per day you have been blessed -- and don't talk to me because I am jealous!!
Just teasing -- I wish you the very best in your ongoing low carb way of life and sincerely hope you continue to do so well. Alma

Thanks very much! I never thought I could eat that many carbs and maintain my weight, because to lose I have to eat 25 or under. But on maintenance, it seems I can tolerate a lot more. In fact yesterday I ate 150 carbs, and am still holding steady at my lowest weight. I think it helps that my body REALLY likes this weight!

It is such a relief to have gone through the first 10 days of maintenance and have my weight holding steady. I'm learning a lot about what I can and can't have, just by how I feel. I learned I really need a lower carb breakfast or I feel very tired all morning and sometimes need a nap. But I can have more carbs at dinner, that seems to work well.
I've been getting headaches after eating wheat, so I'm thinking I really need to keep away from that. But corn seems to be okay for me. I haven't been getting any cravings or hunger, so that is good. Its not hard to stop when I'm full.

So far, so good!

I'm really happy for you that it seems to be working and that you seem to be able to handle a higher carb count. I'm finding that I can too if I don't do it too often. And I thought I knew my CCM but I've exceeded it pretty heavily on occasion without any repercussions, so maybe I can handle more than I thought from going through the rungs by the book. It's still a learning process!

Now that you've made goal, why don't you join us on the pre-maintenance and maintenance weigh-in thread - I find it really helps to keep me accountable.

Thank you Glenda! I will join in the thread. Its good to be accountable.
Yes, I dont' think I will be able to get away with 150 carbs every day, but it seems to be okay once in a while. I'm learning as I go.

Hi there PinguChick,

Just happened to see your post - the title grabbed me and I just popped in out of curiosity - and wanted to chime in with my experiences on the Critical Carbohydrate Limit.

At the beginning of the year, I decided to once again be more strict about my plan, which at that point was Schwarzbein. For about six weeks, I had no wheat, no alcohol, and kept my carbs at a daily average of 110-120g per day. My weight was totally stable at this carb intake.

However, I then had my Dad visiting, some general stress and, you know, life... and beer crept back on the menu, wheat appeared a few times also. And, as soon as I allow those items back in my diet, I immediately gain 2-3lbs. Fortunately, as soon as I chuck them out again, the weight goes down again.

From doing my own carb counting (which isn't that accurate, but it's good enough for me), I know that I can maintain at around 110-130g of carbs per day.

I am lucky in that my first LC plan was Barry Groves, not Atkins, and he recommends 40-60g of carbs per day for weight loss. I found I couldn't even get that low, but discovered that 70g per day worked fine for me and allowed me to lose about 1kg/2.2lbs per week (if I left beer out of the equation, of course).

At the moment (summer looms and all my summer shorts and capri trousers are still rather snug), I am trying to lose again and have found that if I stick to a carb range between 80-100g per day, I can still lose. Maybe not as fast as some people would like, but it's fine for me as that means I can have carbs with most meals, if needs be. I was doing Schwarzbein because I realized I had adrenal fatigue (halfway recovered now, though, thanks to her advice) and I couldn't cope with having too few carbs as my blood sugar would just get too low.

If you look at this from the Primal Blueprint blog:

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/the-...rate-continuum/

... you'll see that he says that most people can lose between 50-100g of carbs per day. From around 100g - 150g is maintenance for most people, depending on your activity level.

From visiting this forum for three years now, I also have observed that sometimes people notice that they can lose on a lot more carbs per day than they originally thought and that it is not actually necessary to lower your carbs as low as Atkins Induction levels at all.

Most importantly, though, is the fact that we are all different!!! I think you are doing absolutely the right thing to monitor how you feel with different foods at different times of day. Like you, I have discovered I don't feel comfortable eating wheat (with me, it seems to affect my gums, which start to feel sore after eating bread) and, I also find I need to have different distributions of macros at different times of the day.

In the morning, first thing, I need a carb fix. A few hours later, if my routine allows, I have a cooked breakfast, with a minimal amount of carbs, which is either an early lunch or a late second breakfast. For lunch (which is sometimes a very early supper), I have a few carbs, but not many. In the evening, for some reason, I can do without carbs altogether, which is good because that tends to keep the daily carb count lower!!!

However, when the symptoms of adrenal fatigue were worse, I needed more carbs. I think we have to accept that there may be times when we need to adjust our diets according to whatever phase we have hit and that, so long as we eat healthily, and don't start to gain weight in an uncontrolled fashion, then we can tweak to our heart's delight!!!

I think you may have now entered the most interesting part of your journey and may start to make new discoveries about your preferences and your body's needs.

But keep to whole natural unprocessed foods as much as your lifestyle and budget will allow: that will help you stay healthy, regardless of the number of carbs you eat per day!!!

All the best, and enjoy maintenance!!!

amanda

Hi Amanda,
Wow, that is really interesting! Thanks for taking the time to write. I will check out that link. That makes a lot of sense.
Yes, I am actually really enjoying maintenance. I feel like I am in control, and learning so much. It is a good feeling. Before I lost the weight I said to myself that I would not relax when it came time to maintain, that I would work even harder at maintenance than at losing, because it is so important to learn how to maintain in a sustainable way. I'm reading a lot, and using fitday.com to count everything, so I can learn how my body responds to what I eat. I'm weighing myself every day as another way to gather information.
But it is a lot less scary than I thought it would be to begin with!
Yes, I totally hear you on the whole foods thing. I'm trying for 90% of my diet to be from whole, unprocessed foods.
Thanks again for writing!